Secret Recipe: Slow-Cooked Pork Sugo from Perbacco

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In the July 2011 issue, pastry chef Emily Luchetti (of Waterbar and Farallon) obsessed over her favorite comfort food: red sauce. "I mean something like marinara, Bolognese, or even just straight grape tomatoes with basil," she says. "If I get it at a restaurant, I like Perbacco's canneroni with pork sugo." We've got the recipe for the sauce, which goes nicely with canneroni pasta and some ricotta salata on top.

Slow-Cooked Pork Sugo

Serves 6

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 yellow onions, diced small

2 tablespoons fennel seed

2 tablespoons red chili flakes

1 bay leaf

16 ounces canned diced tomatoes

16 ounces canned tomato puree

10 ounces pork stock

1 (4 pounds) roasted pork butt, shredded into small pieces

2 sprigs rosemary

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1. In a thick-bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, and cook gently until translucent. Then add the fennel seed, chili flakes, and bay leaf, and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.

2. To the pot, add all the tomatoes, pork stock, and shredded pork, and bring to a simmer. Continue cooking the sauce at a simmer for 1 hour, stirring every 5 minutes to keep the sauce from sticking and burning on the bottom.

3. Finish the sugo with rosemary, and season to taste with salt and pepper.